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In recent months, Googie architecture has been brought to the collective consciousness of Seattleites. What is Googie architecture? Why is it significant to our architectural and cultural heritage? What does it mean in the larger context of Modernism? Why should we care?

Docomomo WEWA and its co-sponsors welcome California architecture critic Alan Hess to Seattle. He will examine how Googie architecture successfully combined Modernism and popular culture and why it is important today.

Alan Hess is the author of Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture (2004) and Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture (1985). As a practicing architect and historian, Hess documents the emerging suburban metropolises of the West. As an architecture critic, he has written a column for the San Jose Mercury News since 1986. His most recent books are Julius Shulman: Palm Springs; Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970; and Frank Lloyd Wright: Mid-Century Modern.

Hess has been active in the preservation of roadside and post War architecture. His writings and advocacy efforts have helped raise awareness and appreciation of mid-century Modern commercial architecture and have led to the preservation of many of these resources.